BOOK THE FIRST.CHAPTER
XVIII.
FROM
A.D. 1329 TO A.D. 1336.
The general
tranquillity which followed these popular reforms enabled government to turn
its attention almost exclusively to war, as all good Guelphs were indignant at
the conduct of the Bavarian “who called himself emperor,” for he had not only
introduced his Anti pope Nicholas V with almost divine honours into Pisa; on
the third of January; but soon after formally deposed and excommunicated the
reigning pontiff along with Robert King of Naples and the Florentine republic.
The Pisans also shared this indignation because they had assisted, though very
unwillingly, in so sacrilegious a proceeding, wherefore the new general Count
Beltram del Balzo, then stationed at San Miniato, was
ordered to waste their country; and this he accomplished without any opposition
from Louis who under the mask of listlessness was secretly engaged in
organising a dangerous conspiracy against Florence. It was conducted by Ugolino
de’ Ubaldini with whom some citizens of little note had agreed to betray the
city and set fire to the more distant quarters; while all were busy with the
flames, two hundred soldiers previously introduced under a certain Giovanni del
Sega, were to rush from their concealment, occupy the Prato Gate, admit the
exiles and also a thousand imperial horse with a foot-soldier behind each. All
these were under a German marshal’s command who was immediately to “correr la terra” an operation already
described as the mark of military possession and supremacy. The plot was
revealed by two of Sega s accomplices, and this conspirator who had been
selected for his dexterity in such matters, was executed with characteristic
cruelty by being “planted” alive in the earth, head downwards; but not until
after his flesh had been torn from the bones with red-hot pincers. His
betrayers were rewarded with a donation of 2000 florins and the right of
earning offensive and defensive arms; a privilege of no small importance, and
just denied to all the rest of the community in consequence of frequent
robberies and other disorders. Amongst these the practice of natural heirs
habitually murdering their own relations the sooner to enjoy an inheritance,
appears to have been frequent; but against such offenders a more severe and
ignominious punishment was directed.
The effect of
this conspiracy was to add new flame to Florentine rage against Louis whose
unpopularity was so great that one powerful rallying-point was deemed
sufficient to unite many places in rebellion against him. A commissioner was
therefore appointed with full authority to make alliances between the
Florentine republic and every person place or community that would revolt; and
a further promise of unmodified indemnity for any previous injury or other
offences committed against the commonwealth. To give it greater weight and
solemnity thirteen citizens were afterwards joined in the commission, while
Count Beltram was commanded again to ravage the Pisan territory and with
greater severity in consequence of the antipope’s recent anathemas. The Company of Cerruglia’
as the German mutineers were now called, being still unsatisfied, Azzo Visconti
who was then in the imperial court, offered Louis a large subsidy to liquidate
these claims provided he were reinstated in the government of Milan for which
he had been long a supplicant: the conditions being accepted an officer was
sent in the middle of January with Visconti to receive 30,000 florins for the
company; but this man absconded with the greater part, and Azzo intent on
establishing his own authority made no haste about the remainder, so that
Louis seeing himself thus slighted immediately marched to Lombardy.
After the
expulsion of Castruccio’s wife and children he had sold Lucca to their kinsman
Francesco Castracani for 22,000 florins, but his Italian influence was waning
fast: the house of Este hitherto his friends were disgusted, especially at the
creation of an antipope, and reconciled themselves to the church; Pisa was soon
after pardoned by Pope John as a reward for treacherously delivering the
antipope Nicholas into his hands; Azzo Visconti also, stung by his own and his
father’s wrongs and angry at the treatment of Castruccio’s children, was deep
in negotiations with the court of Avignon, and a general coolness pervaded
Lombardy. Louis marched from Pisa on the eleventh of April and the mutineers
seeing no hopes of an accommodation chose the hostage Marco Visconti; who was
one of the most popular and boldest warriors of the day; as their leader and
resolved to shift for themselves. Partly stimulated by the intrigues of Pino
della Tosa and the Bishop of Florence who promised them a large sum of money,
they conspired with Castruccio’s old German garrison of L’Agosta,
the citadel-palace of Lucca, and being secretly admitted, soon drove Francesco
Castracani from the town. Marco then sent to demand payment of Florence and at
the same time offered to sell the city for 80,000 florins on the sole condition
of pardoning Castruccio’s sons and allowing them to live as private citizens.
This proposal
filled Florence with quarrels in consequence of the violent opposition of
Simone della Tosa a relation but jealous enemy of Pino’s: it was finally, and
would have been wisely rejected, if the system of non-interference had been
afterwards rigidly pursued; but as the mutability of the Florentines was
proverbial, opinions soon changed, and that which might at this time have been
had for little, was afterwards vainly attempted at the expense of blood,
treasure, national honour, and almost of national liberty. They managed better
in their transactions with Pistoia the loss of which was more keenly felt than
any other of Castruccio’s conquests: Filippo Tedici and other friends of that
celebrated chief laid just made a partially successful attempt to recover
possession of the town in the name of his sons; but their enemies the
Panciatichi, Muli, Gualfreducci, and Vergellesi, although Ghibelines, resolved
to reestablish the old alliance between Pistoia and Guelphic Florence. A treaty
was therefore concluded in May, by which the latter remained in possession of
Carmignano, Montemurlo, Artimino, Tizzana and other strongholds to which in common with Pistoia all exiles were restored:
moreover the Pistoians voluntarily intrusted the custody of their city to n
Florentine guard and governor appointed by that republic. Jacopo Strozzi was
therefore made commissioner with orders to create several knights of the
leading Ghibeline families in the name of the commonwealth and make them a
present of 2000 florins each; a very popular act which excited much friendly
feeling and was accompanied with great public rejoicings in both capitals; but
ever after this although nominally independent Pistoia really ceased to be any
longer a free community.
To the recovery
of Pistoia succeeded the pacification of Val-di-Nievole which with Florentine assistance had been conquered by Lucca in 1281. In this
romantic district the ancient walls and castles of those restless times now add
new beauties to the quiet scenery where they once appeared as bold and
formidable actors; for after Castruccio’s death that people made a confederacy
called the “League of the Val-di-Nievole” composed of
Montecatini, Buggiana, Uzzano,
Colle, Il Cozzile, Massa, Montesommano, Montevettolino, and Pescia; who seeing the reduced
condition of Lucca, and the present tranquillity of Pistoia under Florentine
protection quickly followed her example and acknowledged its supremacy.
About the same
period Pisa with the aid of Marco Visconti expelled the imperial vicar
Tarlatino da Pietramala and once more recovered her liberty, to the great joy
of Florence; but more from hatred to Louis than sympathy for Pisa, with which
however she soon made peace: in the interim Marco Visconti anxious to return
home attempted again to dispose of Lucca and repaired to Florence for that
purpose, but the same patriotic or factious opposition still prevailed and
defeated all his plans. After wasting a month in vain negotiation he was
presented with 1000 florins and immediately proceeded to Milan where being
received with enthusiasm by the people, Azzo’s jealousy was roused and he had
him strangled after a banquet, his body being subsequently thrown out of the
palace window.
The dread of
being thus shouldered by so powerful a neighbour as Florence induced Pisa to
take up this negotiation and precipitately offer 60,000 florins for the state
of Lucca; but in her eagerness to close the bargain she paid the money without
tiny hostages or other security for possession and was defrauded of both. This
audacious attempt to supersede Florence and subjugate a neighbouring state by
one scarcely emerged from long years of bondage exasperated every one and
caused a third devastation of the Pisan district, which in the month of August
enforced a disadvantageous peace, while about the same
period a third and final offer was unsuccessfully made by the German soldiers
to dispose of Lucca. Upon this some opulent citizens, and amongst them the
historian Giovanni Villani, indignant at what they thought an unprincipled
opposition to this tempting offer, came boldly forward and proposed to advance
the money themselves if the state would only engage to reimburse them from the
ordinary revenue of Lucca: but this did not prevail against the party of Simone
della Tosa; wherefore the soldiers anxious to return home sold the same city,
which only twelve months before was dominant in Tuscany and dreaded by all
Italy, to an exiled Ghibeline of Genoa for the paltry sum of 30,000 florins!
Yet Gherardino Spinola had hardly completed his
purchase when Florence, who like the dog in the fable would neither have the
place herself nor allow others to touch it, flared up at this bargain and
although Spinola immediately offered her either peace or truce, both were
disdainfully rejected and in the midst of strong political excitement the war
of Lucca commenced.
In relating
these events Villani indignantly exclaims against all the hypocritical excuses
alleged by the governing party opposed to this purchase, who declared they had
before objected to it from an honest feeling lest reports should be spread
through the world that Florence from mere love of aggrandisement had purchased
the city of Lucca. “But in our own opinion,” says this author, “and in that of
many wiser citizens who have examined the question, that as a compensation for
all the defeats, injuries and expenses suffered by Florence from Lucca in the
Castruccian war, no other vengeance could be taken by the Florentines, nor
greater praise, nor more glorious fame could spread through the world than the
being able to say, that the merchants and private citizens of Florence with
their own money had purchased Lucca and their sometime enemies, her citizens
and subjects, as their bond-slaves. “But whom God hates he deprives of reason
and will not permit to act wisely; for perhaps, or without a perhaps, their
sins were not yet purged, nor their pride humbled, nor the usury nor ill-gotten
gains of the Florentines sufficiently diminished to prevent their spending and
consuming more in war by pursuing their quarrel with the Lucchese, when for
every birthing that Lucca would have cost, a hundred or more, nay we may say an
infinity was spent afterwards by the Florentines in the said war as we shall
mention in its place. Whereas with the above-named loan, neither spent nor
lost, such high and honourable vengeance might have been taken on the people of
Lucca by having purchased them as slaves, and more than slaves, with their
possessions; and afterwards at their own expense, and under our yoke bestowed
on them both peace and pardon and made them freemen and companions, as they
were in ancient times with the Florentines”.
The strong
fortress and pass of Serravalle which Pistoia voluntarily surrendered for three
years to Florence gave a free entrance to the Lucchese states, and together
with the league of Val-di-Nievole enabled her to push
on the siege of Montecatini more vigorously which, though a member of that
confederacy, had been incited by Spinola to revolt: but it was large, strong,
well defended, and not easily taken; Spinola attempted several times to succour
it but failed, and nearly lost Lucca itself by a bold assault of Castruccio's
sons who for many hours were in possession of all the city except the fortress
of L’Agosta. Montecatini held out for eleven months
against a close and rigorous blockade by an immense army and vast lines of
circumvallation; extending no less than fourteen miles, and backed by ditches
sufficiently capacious to admit the waters of three rivers, the Pescia, Gora,
and the Nievole. About the middle of June 1330 it
surrendered and scarcely escaped total destruction by a decree of the
Florentine people: it was however ultimately spared, partly because of its
importance as a military station, and partly from old recollections of its
having been the only place in Tuscany that generously received the Guelphic
fugitives from Lucca after the battle of Monteaperto; and thus exposed itself
to immediate enmity, and even subsequent conquest by that republic: Montecatini
was therefore saved and incorporated into the Florentine state.
During the
continuance of this siege the emperor after an unsuccessful campaign against
Milan and its subject states, managed while at Pavia, Cremona, and Parma in the
months of October and November to organise a very powerful conspiracy at
Bologna for the purpose of snatching that important city from the hands of the
pope’s legate and nephew Bertrand de Poïet. The plot was personally directed by
Count Hector of Panigo under the influence of the
Rossi of Parma, one of which family was kept a close prisoner by the cardinal
legate, and was too extensive not to have succeeded even after its complete
detection, had not the arrival of a strong Florentine detachment enabled
Bertrand to execute his prisoners and overawe the town.
Thus Bologna
like Florence and the other Italian republics, was ever in peril from civil
discord or private and personal enmity; and thus a weak point always presented
itself to external enemies in the swarms of vindictive exiles that infested
every foreign shite, besides their secret adherents at home. These irritable
fugitives, boiling up with vindictiveness, were continually intriguing for
their own restoration, and in their eagerness to join any prince or state
making promises of everything, no matter how extravagant or false, against
their native country; the predominant factions at home being at the same time
harassed by constant fears of plots and new revolutions, dreading external
aggressions, and in everlasting quarrels amongst themselves.
On the fifth of
October, about ten weeks after the fall of Montecatini, the Florentines marched
to Lucca and soon demonstrated to Gherardino Spinola
that it was not that lordship but his own extraordinary talents which had
exalted Castruccio Castracani whose mantle he vainly imagined he had secured
with the rest of his spoils: in the short space of three days they captured the
fortresses of Poggio, Corruglio, Vivinaia, Montechiaro, San Martino in Colle, and Porcari; thus
mastering the whole of Castruccio’s former position and encampng two days after under the walls of his capital. The camp was intrenched,
permanent quarters erected, and every other preparation made for a winter’s
investment; but one of the first operations was to redeem the honour of
Florence and revenge Castruccio’s insult by running for the Palio under her
very walls. Their intention to celebrate these races was publicly proclaimed,
and as a curious trait of that age’s customs it may be added, that a general
safe-conduct to all who pleased to issue from the beleaguered town as
spectators of the games was announced by the Florentines. Multitudes, both
citizens and strangers, took advantage of this permission to view more nearly
the insult about to be offered to them ; but the Florentine general had a
deeper object; he had corrupted a German commander who with two hundred men-
at-arms took the opportunity of coming quietly over to his standard. This
treachery threw Spinola into great consternation and the siege proceeded with
so much vigour that a secret treaty with Florence was begun and nearly
concluded by the citizens for the surrender of Lucca but being detected and
disapproved of by Spinola, although his purchase-money was secured, it fell to
the ground.
This investment
continued under various commanders until the latter end of February 1331, when
the old Florentine general Beltram del Balzo who had
been serving in Lombardy, was again appointed to command the forces: discipline
had relaxed, disorders occurred ; a mutiny had broken out amongst the Burgundy
troops and was quelled with great difficulty; a German colonel had deserted to
Spinola with a hundred horse ; and a strong reenforcement from John king of Bohemia (the same that afterwards fell at Cressy) to whom
Spinola had offered on certain conditions the lordship of Lucca, was on its
march to Tuscany, so that Count Beltram considered it necessary to raise the
siege. The Bohemian’s troops arrived about the beginning of March and
immediately acted on the offensive; Buggiano was
abandoned by the Florentines, Cerreto Guidi and other places taken and burnt,
and their territory ravaged for three days without opposition, but probably
from treachery in the officers commanding the passes in the Val-di- Nievole.
Spinola
complaining of King John’s want of faith withdrew from Lucca in disgust and the
latter found himself in addition to his other numerous acquisitions with a
secure footing in Tuscany. This extraordinary man the son of Henry the Seventh,
became king of Bohemia by his marriage with the daughter of Wenceslas II. but
accustomed to the gallantry of the French court was soon tired and disgusted
with the rude manners and turbulent disposition of the Bohemians and resided
in his hereditary dominions. Young, brave, addicted to pleasure and nil the
military amusements of the age, he became a constant traveller, had great
personal influence, and mixed with the jxjlitics of
all Europe without any apparent motive of personal aggrandisement. His
reputation was high, for he made friends even of his opponents, and had
recently arrived at Trent on purpose to many his son to the daughter of the
Duke of Carinthia who had been his competitor for the kingdom of Bohemia. While
thus employed ambassadors arrived from Brescia to offer him the sovereignty of
their town for life they having been sorely vexed by the combined powers of
Azzo Visconti and the two nephews of Cane della Scala who had not been long
dead. The king of Bohemia eagerly accepted this offer well knowing how much
might be gained in Italy at that time by any foreign prince who would boldly
lead a faction; wherefore immediately repairing to Brescia he reconciled all
parties, restored the exiles, induced Mastino della
Scala to retire with his troops, and remained in quiet possession of the place.
Cremona, Pavia, Bergamo, Vercelli, Novara, and even Milan itself became his
voluntary subjects; Parma Reggio and Modena soon followed the general example,
and it was during this shower of Lombard cities on his head that Spinola’s
ambassadors came also to show him the way into Tuscany.
Three envoys
were immediately despatched to Florence imploring for peace or truce with his
city of Lucca and adding that as king of Bohemia only, he could not be
influenced by the friendships or mixed up with the pretensions of his late
father the Emperor Henry the Seventh. The Florentines were much too calculating
a nation to follow the general enthusiasm about John of Bohemia, and being then
intent on disinterring the sacred relics of Saint Zanobi, only replied that the
Lucchese war was begun at the instance of the pope and king of Naples without
whose concurrence nothing could be accomplished; King John expecting such a
reply had already prepared the reenforcement which
compelled Count Beltram to raise the siege.
The campaign as
already mentioned went badly for Florence, and notwithstanding the pope’s
protestations it was evident that he leaned to the king of Bohemia whose
friendship with the cardinal legate now became notorious, each wanting to
establish a separate dominion in Italy. Besides this, Florence had been laid
under an interdict by the latter on account of a quarrel about the church of
the Impruneta which the cardinal wanted for himself
in defiance of the Buondelmonti who were its founders and patrons. On the other
hand Colle from civil discord and private tyranny gave itself up entirely to
Florence; Fucecchio, Castelfranco, and Santa Croce, did the same; and a quarrel
having broken out at Pistoia between the Florentine party and their
antagonists, the former with the troops of that nation at once took military
possession of the town : the leading Ghibelines then gave Florence absolute
authority for a year; but ere this period had half elapsed an embassy was sent
to continue it for two years longer, so content were the Pistoians with their
governors. Florence indeed fearful of again losing so valuable an acquisition
tried to guide it by a thread of silk, and continued all the forms of
government as though Pistoia were still independent: new podestas were elected
half-yearly, a captain of the guard quarterly; and other functionaries in a
similar manner. A board of twelve citizens was created and renewed every three
months which in conjunction with the priors exercised a supreme authority over
Pistoia ; finally a citadel was erected on that side of the city which looked
towards Florence and was garrisoned by her troops; thus commenced a subjection
under the form of voluntary obedience which continued ever after.
About this time
the Pisans fearful of a new revolution from the external strength and internal
influence of numerous exiles implored the aid of Florence which notwithstanding
her former enmity sent them a strong auxiliary force and preserved the town:
the Ubaldini also quarrelling amongst themselves voluntarily returned to their
allegiance, and the republic to secure these precarious subjects founded the
town of Firenzuola on the river Santemo amongst the summits of the Apennines and in the very heart of their wild and
mountainous country.
Florence in the
midst of her own misfortunes had always kept an anxious eye on the affairs of
Lombardy: Cane della Scala, the best, the ablest, the most generous and
successful of its tyrants, died in July 1329 and was succeeded by his nephews
Albert and Mastino, but the former rather addicted to
pleasure than business resigned the cares of government to his brother, who
inherited more of the talents than the virtues of their predecessor. It was
therefore with great satisfaction that the Florentines saw John of Bohemia
compelled to return into Germany in order to check a hostile and powerful
confederation of his former friends, while the Guelphs of Brescia and Bergamo
assisted by Mastino della Scala, Azzo Visconti, and
the lords of Ferrara and Mantua, threw off his jurisdiction in Lombardy. Novara
and Vercelli were soon after lost in the same manner for the aggrandisement of
Milan; and thus Guelph and Ghibeline wero strangely united against the emperor’s
friend, the suspected accomplice of the papal legate, and one who was secretly
countenanced by the pontiff himself while he repudiated all his proceedings.
The Florentines were in fact exceedingly alarmed by the union between John of
Bohemia and Bertrand de Poïet, a reputed son of the pope, and who with his
connivance were striving to form two separate states in Italy, a design likely
to prove destructive to their republic; and the Ghibeline lords in attacking
that monarch found themselves strangely opposed to the enemies of the Guelphic
Robert and, if possible, more Guelphic Florence.
This community
of present interest absorbed all other sentiments, and in the month of
September produced a treaty of alliance between Guelph and Ghibeline; between
republican Florence and Lombard tyrants; between King Robert and his fiercest
enemies; and above all between the Florentines and Azzo Visconti, the friend
and ally of Castruccio, by whose means beyond every other, they had been so
deeply injured and insulted! Two objects were proposed by this treaty, one to
get rid of a monarch closely allied to the “Bavarian” and likely if occasion
suited to introduce that prince again into Italy; the other to partition his
subject states equally amongst themselves and thus preserve the political
balance of the Peninsula. Cremona and San Donnino were
to be conquered for Azzo Visconti; Parma for Mastino della Scala; Reggio for Luigi di Gonzaga of Mantua who had succeeded by a
bloody revolution in 1328 to Passerino Buonacossi;
Modena for the lords of Ferrara; and Lucca for the Florentines.
Little of
importance occurred in Tuscany during the remainder of the year 1332 except a
generally inglorious campaign and the loss of Barga, which was taken by the
Lucchese in October with a cost to Florence of 100,000 florins and the
diminution of her military reputation: but in the beginning of 1333 John of
Bohemia who as if by enchantment had tranquillised Germany, and made allies of
the pope and Philip VI of France, appeared at Turin with a powerful army from
the latter kingdom. This encouraged the legate to make a vigorous attack on
Ferrara after having defeated the lords of Este at Consandoli;
but that city being timeously succoured by the confederates he was defeated
with great loss and many prisoners of high rank, amongst whom were several
lords of Romagna for whose release he refused to advance the money; and in
consequence of their very natural disgust; artfully increased by the chiefs of
the league who dismissed them with two thousand of their followers unransomed; lost the good-will of all Romagna. Forli,
Rimini, Cesena, Cerna, and Ravenna severally revolted; while the previous
arrival of King John at Bologna after the dispersion of his French army, had
only augmented the ill-humour of its citizens: they were compelled to pay him
fifteen thousand florins by the legate’s command, to secure the cooperation of
three hundred horsemen under Count d’Armagnac who was
afterwards made prisoner at Ferrara. A second visit of this king to Bologna
renewed the general discontent and caused a coolness with the legate which made
him again quit that city and soon after proceed to Lucca where he levied
another contribution on the already impoverished inhabitants. After this,
perceiving the general change of sentiments and his altered fortune, he
determined to leave Italy, but not empty-handed, and therefore sold Lucca and Parma
to the Rossi; Reggio to the Fogliani; Modena to the Pii; and Cremona to Ponzino Ponzoni; after which he despatched the German troops with
his son to Bohemia and retired himself in October to Paris, but with a somewhat
diminished reputation, considering the extraordinary influence that he so
suddenly acquired and so long maintained over the states of Lombardy.
The Legate had
endeavoured to detach Florence from the Lombard confederacy but was steadily
opposed in the councils, and not without reason; for by letters afterwards
discovered it appeared to have been arranged with King John that Florence
should be the first and principal victim to their joint ambition, and she
consequently united with a lesser enemy to oppose the greater and more
dangerous one.
Florence was
once again in strength and by the elastic power of industry had completely
recovered from all her recent misfortunes; while Pisa, still languishing
unsettled and exhausted, had even been compelled to implore the intervention of
a Florentine bishop to make her peace with Siena, against whom she was at war
about the possession of Massa Marittima. Lucca, now almost ruined, could give
the Florentines no uneasiness, for when the Bohemian forced each individual to
take an oath of fidelity to him, he found only four thousand four hundred and
fifty-eight citizens able to bear arms in that once powerful commonwealth. With
this sole exception Florence was either the sovereign or friend of every state
in Tuscany: Piero Saccone of the Tarlati ruled Arezzo unmolested; Perugia and
Siena, were her close allies; Volterra, Pistoia, Colle, San Gimignano,
and other places, although nominally independent were mere subjects of the
dominant city; therefore both comparatively and positively Florence enjoyed a
higher state of power and prosperity than she had ever experienced since the
memorable close of the thirteenth century. The mind of her citizens again
turned to joy and festivity; two companies of artisans to the number of three
and five hundred individuals paraded her streets in fanciful costume, and with
garlands and songs and dancing, music and other diversions, entertained their
fellow-citizens for a whole month, while the natural taste and lively spirit of
the people seemed once more to revel in its accustomed cheerfulness, the happy
result of universal prosperity.
It would yet
seem that in Florence far beyond other places, these periodical bursts of
pleasure were as surely followed by some strong reaction, and whether from war
faction or great natural calamities the sudden vicissitudes of human life were
there most quickly and sharply experienced. On the first day of November 1333
the heavens seemed suddenly to open and pour down an incessant stream of water
for ninety-six hours successively, not only without diminution but in augmented
volume: continued sheets of fire with sharp and vivid flashes struck from the
clouds, while peals of thunder bellowed through the gloom, darting bolt after
bolt into the earth, and impressing on mankind the awful feeling of universal
ruin. The natural and superstitious fears of the people were painfully excited
and all the church and convent bells were tolled to conjure the spirit of the
storm: men and women were seen clambering on slender planks from roof to roof
amidst falling tiles, crying aloud for mercy with such an unusual din as almost
to drown the deeper tones of distant thunder and realise the idea of chaos, or
the infernal regions of their own great poet. The first burst of the Arno, even
near its source, broke over rocks and woods and banks and fields, and deluged
the green plains of Casentino; then sweeping in broad and spreading sheets over
those of Arezzo flooded all the upper Val-d’Arno, and with mighty force bore
off mills, and barns and granaries in its course, with every human habitation
and all that it contained, animate and inanimate, like weightless things. Trees were uprooted, cattle destroyed,
men women and children suffocated, the soil washed clean away, and the dark
torrent thus unnaturally loaded came roaring down on Florence. The tributary
Sieve after swamping its native vales rushed madly down, with the soil of half
a province on its wave, and swelled the bounding Arno: the Affrica, the Mensola, every common ditch, now changed to torrents, gave
force and danger to the flood which rolled its angry surges towards the
capital.
On the fourth
of November 1333 the whole plain of San Salvi was covered to the depth of
twelve, sixteen, and even twenty feet; the waters mounted high against wall and
tower, and swept round Florence like the tide on a stranded ship. For awhile
the ramparts withstood this pressure; but presently the antiport of Santa Croce
gave way; then the main gate, then the Porta Renata; and then, night set in:
but with it was heard the crash of falling towers and the onward rush of the
water, which still unchecked swept wavy broad and cold, over the ill-fated
town. Two hundred and fifty feet of the walls had been crushed by the enormous
pressure; the red columns of San Giovanni were half buried in the flood; it
deluged the cathedral, encompassed the altar of Santa Croce, measured twelve
feet in the court of the Bargello, sapped the shrines of the Badia; covered
almost all the rest of the city four feet deep, and even beat on the first step
of the public palace, the loftiest ground in Florence. The town beyond Arno was
scarcely less submerged; nearly a thousand feet of the ramparts fell and the
wear, then above Ponte Carraia, was entirely
destroyed: this brought instant ruin on the bridge itself which all except two
arches was buried in the wave; that of La Trinita as quickly followed; then the
Ponte Vecchio, its shops and houses, gold and jewellery, went down in masses: Rubaconte stood in part, but the indignant waters,
overleaping a lateral arch, shattered the solid quay and dashed against the palace-castle
of Altafronte, and this with such fury as to bring
down that solid mansion and most of the houses as far as Ponte Vecchio in one
continuous ruin. The statue of Mars the rude witness of Buondelmonte’s death tumbled headlong from its base into the tide below and disappeared for
ever; this increased the public terror, for an ancient prophecy had foretold
that whenever that crumbling image should move or fall, Florence would be in
danger.
The whole line
of houses between the bridges, with many more on every side, next fell like the
walls of Jericho before the sacred trumpets; nothing but lightning and
devastation met the eye, nothing but hideous shrieks, the crash of houses, the
roar of waters and dismal peals of thunder struck the ear; in what this awful
scene would have ended seemed evident, had not a startling crash with the fall
of near nine hundred feet of the western ramparts opened a wider vent for the
waters and saved Florence from destruction.
On the fifth
all water was drained from the surface; but the cellars, shops, streets, and
houses, were choked with such a mass of slimy matter as required six months of
constant labour to remove; and the wells were necessarily deepened to the new
level of the Arno’s bed, now changed by the scouring torrent: but devastation
did not stop with the relief of Florence: the whole western plain from Signa to
Prato became submerged, and men cattle mills and merchandise were again swept
promiscuously away: the tributary streams loaded with mischief rolled onward to
the Amo. Pontormo, Empoli, Santa Croce, Castelfranco felt the torrent on their
walls ; San Miniato, Fucecchio, Montetopoli and Pontadera saw their plains deluged and destroyed; and even
Pisa itself would have fallen if the Fosso Amonico and other cuts had not divided the course and volume of this fearful tide and
led it through various channels to the sea.
On the other
side of Pisa the country was equally troubled at the moment but with ultimate
benefit; for the whole plain was elevated no less than four feet by this
alarming inundation: many lives were lost, many more supposed to have been so;
but in the capital and its neighbourhood only three hundred were identified:
the injury in property was enormous; bridges, mills, manufactories, corn, wine,
oil, cloth, precious merchandise, the disappearance of vast tracts of soil and
all their fruitfulness, left calculation far behind; but it was generally believed
that since the fifth century no calamity so dreadful had ever been known in
Florence.
This outbreak
of nature was not confined to the Arno; the Tiber, Serchio and other rivers
made similar havoc; nor was the whole mass of water in the first believed to be
greater than the flood of 1269; but infinitely more destructive in consequence
of the number of wears that existed within the walls; by these the river’s bed
had been raised between thirteen and fourteen feet above its natural level, and
in consequence a decree was immediately made to prohibit any dams being erected
within a certain prescribed distance of the two bridges above and below the
town.
For many days
after the waters had abated a heavy fall of rain, with thunder and lightning,
still continued in so alarming a manner, that nearly till Florence resorted to
confession penitence and prayer to avert divine wrath; and so profound was the
impression of melancholy that it became a question of earnest and universal
discussion whether this event had arrived in the usual course of nature or by
the particular judgment of God to punish national wickedness. The astrologers
attributed it under Providence to certain conjunctions of Saturn and Mars in
the sign of Virgo and others of the sun and moon, with a variety of celestial
combinations of malign aspect, all minutely enumerated by Villani: but, it was
shrewdly demanded of these soothsayers why Florence suffered more than Pisa or
any other part of Tuscany; and as shrewdly answered, “Principally by your own
folly in allowing the river to be dammed up for private purposes.” But this was
still assisted they averred, by some peculiar combinations of heavenly bodies
with a more distinct and immediate influence on the two capitals. The divines
admitted that such reasoning might be partially but not necessarily correct,
except inasmuch as it pleased the Almighty; because, said they, he being far
removed above celestial things guided them at his pleasure, turning the whole
frame of nature under his hand as the smith does a piece of iron on the anvil,
out of which he can produce all the various utensils which his imagination had
already conceived. By the same rule the whole course of nature, the elements,
nay even devils themselves, all became in the Divine hands mere instruments for
punishment, and it is impossible for the dulness of
our nature to penetrate into either the foreknowledge or preordination of God
when even his visible and diurnal labours are but impefectly known to us. The Almighty they said had two great objects, mercy and justice;
for which, he either permitted the course of nature; interrupted it; or soared
above it as omnipotent Lord of all. Villani maintains this position by a
variety of scriptural and historical examples, finishing with a serious account
of some vision of many devils seen on the very evening of the flood by a
hermit of Vallombrosa who informed him that they were, if God permitted, about
to destroy Florence on account of its great wickedness.
The nature of
these transgressions, as we learn from the same author, was abominable and
highly displeasing in the sight of Heaven on account of the “arrogance of one
citizen to another in attempting to domineer and tyrannise and despoil; also
from their excessive covetousness, their public peculation, fraudulent trade,
and usury in every country; the envy between neighbours and brothers; the
foolish vanity of women in extravagant ornaments and expense; and universal gluttony
and excess in drinking,” more wine being then consumed, he asserts, in the
taverns of one parish than had been drunk by their forefathers throughout the
whole city. Also on account of the inordinate depravity of both meh and women
as well as the ingratitude of not acknowledging that their present benefits and
ascendancy over neighbouring states came entirely from God. “ But,” he adds, “it
is a great marvel that God sustains us (and perhaps it may appear to many that
I say too much, and that to me a sinner it may not be permitted so to speak)
but if we Florentines do not wish to deceive ourselves, all is truth. For how
many flagellations and disciplines have we not received from the Almighty up to
this moment, even from the year 1300, without counting those previously
described in this chronicle. First our division into the black and white
factions; next the arrival of Charles of France; then the expulsion of the
Bianchi and its ruinous consequences; subsequently the judgment and danger of
the great conflagration in 1304, besides numerous others that have happened in
Florence to the infinite damage of many citizens. Afterwards came Henry of
Luxembourg and besieged the city in 1312, with the devastation of all our
country and the consequent mortality both in the town and neighbourhood. This
was succeeded by the defeat of Montecatini in 1215; then the persecutions of
the Castruccian war and the defeat of Altopascio in 1325 with its terrible
effects and the boundless expense sustained by Florence to maintain these wars.
Then arrived the Bavarian, who called himself emperor, and the dearness and
scarcity of 1329; more recently the advent of John of Bohemia, and finally the
present inundation. Now if all the former calamities were condensed in one they
would not be greater than this last; therefore be ye assured 0 Florentines!
that so many threatenings and flagellations of God
are not without the provocation of exceeding wickedness’’.
Tho news of
this misfortune spread far and wide, and Robert King of Naples the most
accomplished monarch of his day sympathised with the Florentines in an
elaborate Latin epistle lull of scriptural texts and moral exhortations, the
principal object of which was to convince them that “whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every
son whom he receiveth.” Nevertheless it was
honourably, even enthusiastically welcomed at Florence and universally
applauded.
But, as if to
demonstrate the perverse spirit of the time, even the very day after the waters
had subsided the city was thrown into confusion, open and unprotected as it
remained, by an attempt of the Rossi and other noble families beyond the Arno
to create a revolution and destroy public liberty: this however roused the
people from their despair; bridges of boats were instantly thrown over the
river; that of Rubaconte being in possession of the
nobles; watch and ward were strictly kept, and the great mass of nobility with
a higher feeling joined zealously in the preservation of peace; public spirit
quickly regained its place; the people again became strong and the delinquents
received their deserts.
The resources
of Florence experienced a severe shock from this incalculable loss of private
property, that of the public alone amounting to 250,000 florins, while her prostrate
bulwarks seemed to invite the aggressions of any new Castruccio that might be
ready to take advantage of her present debility. Luckily the only man whose
position and talents could have supplied the place of that accomplished leader
was as yet unprepared for the enterprise and at this moment a close ally of
Florence, whose enemy he became only when their interests no longer coincided,
when the possession of Lucca opened for him a wider field of conquest, and when
the former state already recovered from such depression reassumed her natural
station and held the political balance of Italy.
Lucca could now
do nothing by herself, and the hostile chiefs of Lombardy, to whom John of
Bohemia bad sold the lordship of his remaining cities, were too busy in
opposing the league to dream of attacking Florence. They had in the previous
autumn joined in strict alliance with Bertrand de Poïet, Parma, Reggio, Modena,
Cremona; and Lucca as a dependency of the Rossi; all united in this
confederacy: but the influence of Bertrand had nearly ceased; his selfish
ambition, his deceit and tyranny began to be fully appreciated, and his
administration was everywhere detested. Romagna had already revolted, and
Bologna itself where a citadel had been erected as a pretended palace of the
pope, was in a dangerous state of excitement, for both in person and through
his legate he had assured the citizens of his intention to reside amongst them
before his projected return to Rome. As in other republics, here also were two
adverse factions; one, led by Taddeo de’ Peppoli,
supported the legate; the other under Brandaligi de’ Gozzadini and Colazzo de’ Beccadelli, moved by hatred and perhaps a nobler spirit of
patriotism than their opponents, determined to revolt. At their instance
therefore, the Marquis of Ferrara chief of the confederate army, marched to
Cento and challenged the cardinal to battle: the latter unwilling to refuse
mustered his Languedocian soldiers by whose means he
had commanded the town, and with the assurance of immediate support from the
civic troops sent them forth to combat, two quarters of Bologna being already
under arms for that purpose. This was the moment chosen for rousing an
indignant people in the cause of liberty, and eloquence had its usual effect on
men already prepared to mutiny: every armed foreigner found in the streets was
immediately put to death and the legate closely blockaded in his massy citadel
without a hope of salvation. Reduced to the last extremity he would have
perished in this storm had not the Florentines, stifling all harsher feelings
in their habitual reverence for the church, despatched four ambassadors and
three hundred men-at-arms to shelter him. The terrified priest was too happy to
purchase life by an instantaneous surrender, but it required all the troops and
influence of the embassy to bring him safe to Florence, from whence he departed
two days after for Avignon still carrying with him an unmitigated hatred of his
protectors, which he tricked out in external expressions of endless gratitude.
But his removal
was far from calming Bologna; there the passions of men after being
concentrated against a tyrant, but unsatisfied, soon divided against
themselves, and the Florentines after twice successfully exerting their
influence to restore tranquillity turned their whole attention to the Lucchese
war and the correction of domestic abuses, the latter being an eternal source
of anxiety in this jealous community and yet a continually recurring evil.
Preparations
were made to besiege Lucca with an auxiliary force from the league which had
hitherto been successful in Lombardy; but a conspiracy detected amongst the
German mercenaries there, who bad been bribed by Bertrand de Poïet to deliver Mastino and the other chiefs into his hands, discomposed
the whole confederacy: the troops of that nation withdrew; each Italian leader
retired in alarm and suspicion, the Lombard campaign finished, and Florence was
thus deprived of her expected auxiliaries, which probably saved Lucca from
Florentine dominion. For some time after this, with the exception of a few
occasional inroads and the capture of Uzzano, the Lucchese
war was feebly maintained, but succours went to Mastino della Scala at the siege of Colorino which
subsequently surrendered, and Parma very soon afterwards fell under his
control.
At Florence
notwithstanding all the pains already taken to insure the purity of public
elections, a practice of allowing one person to hold two distinct offices with
incompatible duties had become so notorious as to excite universal
dissatisfaction; this compelled the government to interfere, and a prohibitory decree was passed: the new scrutiny now also
approached and the ruling faction became proportionally anxious; for discontent
had taken deep root in consequence of many citizens whose rank and character
entitled them to a share in national honours, having been from party motives
excluded. Disturbances were consequently expected in January 1335 wherefore the
ascendant party resolved to strengthen government by means of an apparently
beneficial and constitutional force which would they hoped be sufficient to
curb any opposition to their own authority, but under the specious forms of
justice and good government. In consequence of this resolution powers were
demanded and given, to create a set of officers who under the appellation of “Captains
of the Guard” or “Bargellint” were to watch over the
public peace, supervise the conduct of returned exiles, and prevent frays,
gambling, or any other kind of immorality; they had great power, and from the
nature of their duties were generally unpopular. Two of them superintended the
Sesto of Oltrarno, the rest were equally distributed
amongst the other five divisions; each attended by twenty-five armed followers;
and all being fellow-citizens little suspicion was excited: but when in the
following year this office, its duties, and more than its existing powers,
became concentrated in one man and he a stranger, the citizens had full leisure
to contemplate their own folly and repent of so unguarded a confidence.
During these
transactions an event of considerable importance had occurred at Avignon in the
death of Pope John the Twenty-second on the fourth of December, which relieved
Florence and all Italy from one of her bitterest foes: he had flattered and
courted that republic while she continued to support Bertrand de Poïet but
changed with her changing politics, and was detested alike by Germans and
Italians for his ambition avarice and cruelty; hated by every other nation he
died unregretted by any. He it was who first usurped the ancient privilege
which in the eleventh century Gregory VII had taken such pains to confirm, of
the people and clergy, or the clergy alone electing their own pastors, and
under the excuse of stopping simony rolled in an enormous revenue from tills
source alone. He too first exacted the annates or first fruits, to the enormous
amount of a whole year's salary on promotion or translation to another
benefice; therefore whenever a rich bishopric became vacant he forbid a new
election but instantly removed an inferior prelate to the vacancy, and thus
filling up each empty benefice forged a long chain of preferment, every link of
which was beaten gold. By these and other means he had amassed the incredible
sum of 18,000,000 of coined gold alone, besides the value of seven more in
crowns, mitres, crosses, plate, and precious jewellery; so that a treasure was
found in his coffers nominally collected for the holy war, a favourite pretence
of the church, of more than 25,000,000 of golden florins, an immense sum
withdrawn by a single potentate from the comparatively small European
circulation of those early days! The existence of such a treasure in the
coffers of one prince, which however was as we are told, nearly doubled by his
successor, would perhaps scarcely be believed if Villani, whose brother was one
of the commissioners employed in its enumeration, did not assert the fact, and
if he hid not had all the Christian world to draw from.
Pope John in
gathering this vast heap of mammon, as Villani drily remarks, did not seem to
bear in mind the words of Christ to his disciples “Let your treasure be in
heaven not on earthy for where your treasure is there will your heart be
also" The cruelty and implacability of this pontiff aggravated by the
tyrannical conduct of his officers, excited the anger of both Germany and
Italy, and his religious opinions exposed him to the accusation of unqualified
heresy, particularly his disbelief in the possibility of departed souls
beholding God before the day of final judgment. The general outcry raised by
churchmen against him on this account did not however arise from any intense
interest in the question itself, which still existed as a point of unsettled
theology and metaphysical argument; but from its more substantial influence on
ecclesiastical revenues the touchstone of every established religion since the
days of the Ephesian Demetrius. By denying that sanctified spirits could
possibly enjoy the beatific vision until the world’s destruction he according
to the Parisian theologists excluded the Virgin Mary, the Apostles, and all the
saints from their supposed position; with a single blow crushed their power of
mediation, destroyed the efficacy of indulgences, rendered masses useless, and
gave a rude shock to the walls of purgatory. The perennial flow of gold from
all these sources was too precious, too sacred, and too substantial, to be
exposed unprotected even to the discretion of a pope, and a general council
would inevitably have been convoked by the indignant clergy if Philip of
Valois, fearful of losing the useful presence of a pontiff in France, had not
exerted himself to prevent it; and by the aid of the French clergy, the
assistance of King Robert and perhaps some sharp and threatening reproofs,
finally compelled Jolin to renounce his errors. This however was accomplished
only the day previous to his dissolution, by a formal instrument acknowledging
the beatific vision, which under his immediate successor became one of the
dogmas of the Roman Catholic Church
The twenty-four
cardinals then present immediately met in conclave and being of adverse
opinions predetermined not to hurry on the election, but follow a course
usually taken when no successor had been previously fixed upon; namely to cast
away their daily votes on some obscure individual whom no two cardinals were
likely to support, until they could be thrown in with a more certain aim. It
happened that at this moment there was a monk of the Cistercian order in the
sacred college named Jacques Fournier die son of a baker of Saverdun whom nobody supposed could by any possibility unite two votes in his favour,
and for this very reason every secret vote was given to him; to his own and the
general astonishment therefore he became pope, and although his humility
induced him to tell his fellow cardinals that “they had elected an ass,”
he is nevertheless described as a learned virtuous and sincere man, anxious for
peace, and a stranger to court intrigues: under the name of Benedict XII he
reformed many ecclesiastical abuses, especially amongst the monastic orders
then in a lamentable state of corruption, and probably would have accomplished
more had he reigned independently at Rome and in less turbulent times.
About this
period the Florentines were mortified to see King Robert’s power considerably
diminished by the loss of Genoa, from whence the Guelphs had been recently
driven by their adversaries whom he had restored, and all in consequence of a
quarrel about the expediency of renewing his sovereign authority. The result
was a new and widely-spread contention, which plunging the whole territory into
civil war affected its relations with Florence, injured the commerce,
diminished the strength, and for some time blasted the reputation of that
celebrated maritime republic.
The Florentines
however were in some measure compensated by a sudden and rapid decline of power
in the Tarlati of Pietramala Lords of Arezzo. This able, warlike, and still
barbarous race were chiefs of the Apennines, and joining all the hardiment of a northern ancestry to the wily politics of
their own age and country, had under Piero Saccone brother of the late bishop,
not only maintained complete authority in Arezzo but acquired the cities of
Castello, Cagli, Borgo San Sepolcro,
and their several territories. Piero had also driven NXeri della Faggiola the son of Uguccione from his domains and dispossessed the
counts of Montedoglio and Montefeltro of theirs: the
bishop of Arezzo with all the family of Ubaldini had lastly yielded to his
power, after which he crossed the Tuscan frontier and also made considerable
acquisitions in La Maroa and Romagna. The Perugians who claimed some right to Cagli and Citta di Castello
impatient of these rapid conquests gave, in conjunction with the lord of
Cortona, the command of a body of troops to Neri della Faggiola who by means of
secret intelligence within, succeeded in capturing Borgo San Sepolcro and soon afterwards its citadel which was defended
by one of the Tarlati: this was a heavy blow to the reputation of Piero and no
less pleasing to the Florentines, whose exclusive occupation in the wars of
Lombardy and Lucca was the principal cause of Piero Sacchone’s unchecked exaltation. Presuming on success and supposing that Piero would
hardly dare to show himself, the Perugians sent an
army to ravage the Aretine districts, but Tarlati
defeated them with great slaughter, devastated their country in return and
insulted them by contemptuously hanging some Perugian prisoners within sight of that city.
This act more
than anything roused the public indignation; a thousand German horse were
immediately levied, Florence without any solicitation despatched a hundred and
fifty men-at-arms to their assistance, and in consequence of the restless state
of Tuscany renewed her own alliance with Siena for ten years longer under still
closer bonds of amity and mutual assistance.
Affairs in
Lombardy were still more unsettled: Orlando, Piero, and Marsilio de’ Rossi of
Parma despairing of a successful opposition to the league commenced secret
negotiations with Azzo Visconti about the cession of Parma and Lucca, winch on
coming to light exasperated Mastino della Scala and
alarmed the Florentines, to whom these cities had been respectively awarded: a
meeting of the allies was therefore held at Lerici,
where the mutual reproaches of those chiefs and Azzo’s determination to follow
up his own objects nearly decomposed the confederacy; and would have done so
had not the Florentine ambassadors; fearing if Visconti should get possession
of Parma that Lucca would soon follow, exerted themselves strenuously to effect
a general reconciliation. The question was finally left to their arbitration
and having more confidence in Mastino than in their
former enemy the friend of Castruccio, they at a second conference on the banks
of the Oglio decided that Azzo Visconti was to have Piacenza and San Donnino; and Parma to be awarded to Mastino della Scala: the Rossi on bearing this immediately began to negotiate with Mastino and the Florentines were satisfied by his present
assurance of procuring for them the sovereignty of Lucca on reasonable terms.
The Rossi in fact engaged themselves to persuade their brother Piero then in
possession of Lucea to surrender that city into the hands of Mastino, who continued deceiving Florence with empty
promises of handing it over to her, or else giving his assistance to occupy it
if physical force became necessary.
The consequence
of these arrangements was Alberto della Scala’s occupation of Parma in the
month of June; Reggio soon after fell to the Veronese brothers by a separate
treaty with the lords of Fogliano, but was immediately given to the Gonzaghi of Mantua according to agreement, the nominal
sovereignty still resting with the family of La Scala. Azzo Visconti about the
same period possessed himself of Piacenza where after one serious revolt he
established his authority in the following December; Lodi having submitted some
time before; and finally Modena was reduced to a dependency of Ferrara. Thus
every one of the confederate states accomplished its object excepting Florence;
and hence her quarrel with Mastino, her ultimate loss
of Lucca, her long and expensive wars in Lombardy, and the first serious
interference of Venice as a continental power in the disputes of Italy.
Pisa at this
time wits as much displeased with the conduct of Florence as the latter was
with that of Mastino; for the town of Massa Marittima
had been surprised by a Senese army through negligence or infidelity in the
Florentine governor who held it for the Pisans under the guarantee of that
republic: they justly complained and the Florentines endeavoured to excuse
themselves; but as the transgressor escaped punishment and Siena was allowed to
maintain her conquest unmolested, the credit of Florence received a stain that
was afterwards deepened by her treatment of Perugia in the subsequent war
against Arezzo. With Florentine assistance the Perugians had now regained the ascendant, had recovered Citta di Castello in September,
and reduced Pietro Saccone so low that the whole viscounty of Valdambra consisting of the towns of Bicino, Cenina, Galatrone, Rondine and La Torricella, all
belonging to the Tarlati, voluntarily tendered their allegiance on the 2nd of
November to the republic of Florence, in the expectation of peace, mid future
protection from that powerful state.
This was an
accession of strength and territory unusually acquired, inasmuch as it was
unsought by ambition and unstained by blood; but while the people were justly
proud of it, the thirst of power and the spirit of personal aggrandizement so
rife at home presented a less satisfactory expression of their patriotism and
humanity.
Under the
gonfalonier Cambio Salviati a physician of great eminence and well practised in
his country’s politics, it was declared expedient to abolish the office of
captains of the guard, who being citizens were perhaps not found quite so
pliant as expected; and a decree passed to concentrate their authority in the
hands of a single foreign officer under the title of “Captain of the Guard and
Conservator of the Peace” the governing party, according to Villani, having
been moved to this act by a wish of strengthening themselves and maintaining at
all hazards the ascendancy of their own faction. This is one of many examples
exhibited in Florentine history of the singular notions of liberty then
prevalent: we see a democratic race empowering its rulers, during a time of
profound tranquillity, to create an officer with a salary of 10,000 florins and
so strong power that soaring, as it did above all law, pounced on the
unconscious prey without danger responsibility or mercy; a power which
strengthened by fifty men-at-arms and a hundred footrguards scared all good citizens and filled the community with torture exile and with
death: there was here no form of trial, and this man was as independent of
every statute or court of justice as he was irresponsible to any public
authority in the commonwealth.
Messer Jacopo
Gabrielli d’ Agobbio was the first who exercised this
formidable authority during a year of rapine cruelty and blood: he became like
his predecessor of the same name and country a willing tool of his employers
and returned to Agobbio like that kinsman filled with
gold and crime, and followed by one deep and universal curse. Yet in the face
of this dire experiment the office was continued for another year, and Accorrimbono da Tolentino, a kinsman of Jacopo’s, who had
been previously known and was once esteemed in Florence, succeeded to this
extraordinary charge: but neither could he resist the influence of faction nor
the seductions of unlimited power: his first acts were unexceptionable, but the
people were soon driven to revolt against his oppression and venality, and a
decree was finally made that no rector of Florence should for ten years be
chosen from the city of Agobbio or its territory.
A crying act of
injustice against Pino della Tosa one of the most eminent and popular citizens,
completed the general disgust; universal horror possessed the public mind and
neither intrigue nor persuasion could again induce the Florentines to renew
this odious and tyrannical office. It was indeed an authority without order law
or justice; an authority which could deprive any citizen of his life and
property, and banish him from Florence at the nod of a miscreant or the
pleasure of a dominant faction; a faction whose object was to keep down the
citizens by taking advantage of those sudden jets of unlimited confidence and
blindness to obvious consequences, that formed so prominent a feature in the
aspect of their domestic politics.
Mastino della Scala,
whose ambition grew with his growing for tunes, had already projected the
establishment of his own powder in Tuscany; wherefore by threats promises and
even an attempt on their lives, at last succeeded in forcing Lucca from the
Rossi, more especially from Piero who held it as a nominal vicar of the
Bohemian monarch, and surrendered it with reluctance; yet apparently remaining
there in Mastino’s service. Florence now fancied that
her perseverance was about to be rewarded; but as she was only amused by
courteous assurances, began to suspect that such an acquisition would not be
easily relinquished by an able ambitious chieftain whose dominions already
extended from the German frontier to the borders of Tuscany, and whose aim was
the subjugation of Italy.
During these
transactions Pisa was far from quiet; the democratic party under Count Fazio
della Gherardesca governed that republic; the spirit
of Guelph and Ghibeline had almost disappeared from the great mass of people
only to be cherished with an increased hereditary rancour by the old and still
powerful aristocracy; hence there was a continual struggle between the two
classes. At the head of the nobles were Benedetto and Ceo Maccaione de’ Gualandi, the Lanfranchi and others,
who with assistance from Mastino had organised a
revolution and offered him the lordship of Pisa: the attempt was bravely made,
but after some desperate fighting without receiving the expected succours under
Piero Rosso from Lucca, the insurgent nobles were defeated and most of that
body driven from the town. Florence sent troops, although too late, to the
people’s assistance, but the advance of Mastino’s soldiers under Piero to aid the revolution fully convinced that state of his
real intentions both with respect to themselves and Tuscany : by a solemn
embassy he was once more requested to deliver Lucca into their hands, and when
under divers pretexts he still persisted in retaining possession, they shortly
offered to repay every farthing it had cost him and thus allowed no place for
further subterfuge. Mastino purposely ran his charges
up to 360,000 florins on the supposition that a demand so exorbitant would be
absolutely rejected; but to his astonishment Florence agreed without hesitation
to pay this excessive price for a city which six years before had been
repeatedly offered to her, without a struggle, for about a fifth of the money,
and independent of the cost of all the subsequent wars in attempting to master
it.
Thus taken by
surprise Mastino boldly threw off the mask and told
the Florentine ambassadors that not being in want of gold he would only
exchange Lucca for their assistance, or at least their neutrality, in his
proposed attack on Bologna; which he knew to be closely allied and almost
identified with them. His intentions were now suspected to be not only the immediate
conquest of that republic, but also of Pisa and Romagna; all disunited by
faction, and afterwards with the aid of Arezzo to subdue Florence; then
convulsed by popolani and nobles while groaning under
heavy taxation ; and ultimately to invade Naples and make himself king of
Italy. He had been strongly urged to this by Azzo Visconti, Spinetto Malespini, and other Ghibelines who secretly fearing
his power endeavoured to engage him in hostilities with an enemy that would
find him immediate and sufficient employment both in Tuscany and Lombardy.
Such was the
state of things when Florence indignantly ordered her ambassadors to refuse the
offered conditions and retire. “Go then,” said Mastino haughtily, “and bid your Florentines prepare; for before the middle of May I
will be at their gates with four thousand men-at-arms on horse-back.” And on
the fourteenth of February 1336, even before the ambassadors had arrived with
this message, hostilities were commenced in the Val-di-Nievole.
Cotemporary
Monarchs.—England: Edward III.—Scotland: David II.— France : Philip VI. of
Valois.—Castile and Leon : Alphonso XI.—Aragon : Alphonso IV.—Portugal :
Alphonso IV. (During this king’s reign private warfare was forbidden and the
nobles compelled to sue in the ordinary courts of justice).—German Empire :
Louis of Bavaria.—Naples: Robert (the Good).— Sicily: Frederic II. (of
Aragon).—Popes: John XXII. to 1334; Benedict XII.—Greek Empire: Andronicue the younger.—Turkish Empire : Or khan.
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